When A Car Crash Changes Everything
by no1gleek
Summary: It was an ordinary morning in Lima, Ohio, or so it seemed, when Rachel Berry woke up that morning. Little did she know, everything was about to change. (AU - With Finchel in the real world and Faberry in the AU)
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys :) So I currently have zero ideas for my other fics but I'm working on it! A new chapter of 'Quinn Fabray, My Girlfriend?' Should be up soon :) I have actually done half of it, then I ran out of ideas xD In the mean time, I've been writing this fanfic for exactly a year next Monday xD But I never actually uploaded it, so here it is! The first chapter is quite short, but the next one and the following ones will probably be longer :) I hope you guys enjoy! :D**

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When A Car Crash Changes Everything

It was an ordinary morning in Lima, Ohio, or so it seemed. Rachel had just finished her early morning workout and was getting ready to head to school, the sun was shining which was a pleasant change from all of the rain they had been having recently, and it made Rachel just that bit happier.

Breakfast in Rachel's opinion was the most important meal of the day, she always made sure that she had a very balanced breakfast in order to keep healthy and fight off any diseases that she may need to fight off, Rachel Berry never gets sick she thought to herself, because she never did, and she could never either, it would be a tragedy! She grabbed some strawberries, and raspberries and some star fruit, that was Rachel's favourite type of fruit as it contained the prefix 'star' and Rachel Berry was a star, even if she wasn't the biggest star just yet, she would be sometime in the near future, she put 2 pieces of toast into the toaster and they began to cook while at the same time putting the fruits into the blender and adding some flaxseed-oil for extra healthiness. While waiting for her breakfast, Rachel turned on her iPod and started singing along to 'I'm The Greatest Star' from Funny Girl, this song was going to be her next MySpace video, but she figured it wasn't ready just yet, it still needed some reversal before the whole performance was ready for the people of MySpace. Not exactly the biggest and the type of audience that would be ideal for Rachel, but it was great practice for when she's on Broadway. She heard her toast pop out of the toaster just as she was reaching the chorus

I'm the greatest star, I am by far  
But no one knows it  
That's why I was born, I'll blow my horn, 'till someone knows it  
I'll light up like a light  
Light up like a light  
I'll flicker then flair out  
All the world's gonna stare out...

She grabbed her toast out of the toaster and started adding 'heart healthy' butter to the toast, it contained sunflower oil and some special vitamin that made it extremely healthy and generally better than all of the rest, which was perfect for Rachel. She gently spread the butter over her two pieces of toast and began to tuck in. She flicked through her MySpace page while she ate to check if there were any recent comments on any of her videos she had uploaded, she found one from an account called 'BrittLovesTubbs' on her recent video of 'The Wizard And I' from Wicked, she read it out loud and it said

'I'm so much more talented than you, I realised that ages ago.'

Her early morning smoothie finished blending just as she finished eating her toast, 'perfect timing!' Rachel thought to herself, smiling as she headed over to put it into a glass so she was able to drink it. She slowly poured the smoothie into her glass with gold stars on that she had got from her mother Sophmore year, she really loved this glass, it was a wonderful gift but she didn't use it much because it made her think about her mother, which didn't make her that happy, and slightly confused because she still didn't know how she felt about the whole thing yet. The pink smoothie filled nearly the whole glass, she'd clearly made more than she intended on making, but that didn't bother her, it just meant she had more to drink! She started drinking the smoothie slowly whilst still scrolling through the pages on myspace when she noticed a comment from Jacob-Ben Israel that said 'I'll wait for you Rachel. Your self confidence is endearing. P.s. What colour underwear are you wearing?' Rachel's face went red in anger as she thought to herself 'Why won't he leave me alone!' But despite that, she finished her smoothie, took a deep breath and continued as before, she didn't have any time for invasive creeps like Jacob Ben Israel. She looked over to the chair by her dressing table, on the chair laid the clothes that she had selected to wear for today, she headed over there and started to get dressed, humming along to 'Funny Girl' the title song from the Broadway play, and movie, Funny Girl.

Once she was dressed in her favourite animal sweater, it was black with a White horse in the middle of it, under this she wore just a plain White shirt as black and white tend to go very well together. They're simplistic but very smart and unique. With that she wore a black and White and pink plaid skirt with silver ballet pump type shoes. Rachel's school bag sat on the head of her bed, with her gold star covered folder laying on top of it, she grabbed her school bag and her folder and slinged it under her arm, whilst heading out of the door and into her car, starting it up and starting to drive to school. She started her car and turned on the radio, to hear 'Break My Stride' which was hugely appropriate as it seemed like that kind of day.

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride  
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no  
I got to keep on moving  
Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride  
I'm running and I won't touch ground  
Oh-no, I got to keep on moving

She had a big smile on her face as the sun was shining and she had a very good day today. And to top the day off, she had found out yesterday that got the lead in the school musical which also made her extremely happy. She heard the phone ringing from inside her pocket but just had to ignore it as she was driving, she remembered that Finn said that he would call her in the morning just to check she was okay because he was out looking at collages, she didn't want to worry him unnecessarily, so she pulled over, and started to stop the car so she could text him, as she went to stop the car a rather large car pulled out of what seemed like nowhere as there was a small road leading out which wasn't very easily noticeable, the car was swerving left and right like the driver didn't have any control, Rachel tried to move out of the way but it was too late and the car crashed into the front of Rachel's car. Rachel hit her head on the steering wheel quite hard, and the next minute everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**So, this chapter is insanely short, but I wanted to make it a separate chapter because it doesn't fit with the next chapter, and I really wanted to end the previous chapter where I ended it xD Next chapter may be up today, if I can get it formatted properly and stuff, if not, it'll definitely be tomorrow, and the next one's quite a long one :) I hope you enjoy this chapterlet :D**

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After a few minutes of complete blackout, Rachel slowly opened her eyes and everything was hazy. She was laying in lots of glass, all the windows in her car had fully smashed and all the glass was scattered around where she lay.

She was surrounded by pieces of metal that had come off her car and various different parts of her car but she couldn't manage to identify them. The pain she was in was unbearable, there was blood in various areas of her clothing, ruining her favourite animal sweater staining the White dog in the centre of it so it was no longer White. There was blood coming from her head and she couldn't feel her left leg, it was like it just wasn't there anymore but Rachel knew it was because she could see it, despite the fact it was trapped under a piece of her car. Everything hurt, to the point that it was literally not able to he bared anymore, not even for a single second. Her vision was blurry, and she could barely keep together as she drifted in and out of consciousness, "is this what dying feels like, because I'm not even a Broadway megastar yet!" she thought to herself. Her head was telling her to give up the fight but her heart was telling her different. She wasn't going to give up yet, not for one second. She tried to move her leg from where it was trapped but there was no hope, she couldn't move anything, she was going to be stuck there for ever, gradually getting weaker and weaker.

It was too much, she had to give in, just as she was beginning to slowly drift out of consciousness again, she saw a very blurry figure standing beside her, but the figure was not clear enough and her head was too messed up to figure out who it was. "Rachel, can you hear me? Rachel stay with me okay? You're gonna be okay, you'll be just fine." The person was speaking, but Rachel had no idea what they were saying, it just sounded like mumbling in her messed up head. The next minute she'd been freed from the rubble and she could feel that she was being lifted up onto something, being taken somewhere, but she didn't know what or where. She was beyond scared, but couldn't be scared because everything hurt too much. After she was lifted up, the person was still talking "Stay with me, they're gonna make you bet..." but she didn't hear the end as she once again drifted out of consciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! :) So here's the next chapter :) Sorry it's two days later than I originally said it would be, I've been rather busy :/ and I decided some of it had to be changed a bit before I could upload it xD This chapter doesn't yet reveal who found Rachel, but it will be revealed in a later chapter, just not for a little bit :) I hope you like it! :D**

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Finn rushed to the hospital, incredibly worried and extremely scared. He was driving on the way to go visit one of the colleges he'd been told he should look around, and wasn't opposed to the idea, he had almost arrived when he heard his phone ringing, so he pulled over to the side of the road to see who it was and to answer it. When he picked up his phone he noticed the call was from Rachel's home phone number, marked as 'Rach's Home 3' on Finn's caller ID. Home phone? This worried Finn because school would have started already, what if she was sick and she needed him? When he picked up the phone however, he noticed the call wasn't from Rachel herself, but from Rachel's dads, and they sounded like they'd been through a war and back, it didn't sound good from the moment they said 'Hello'. As the conversation progressed said they told Finn that Rachel had been in a car accident on the way to school, and she was now in the hospital. Nothing else, just that. Terrified didn't even begin to describe how Finn was feeling.

Finn arrived at Lima General within 10 minutes of receiving the phone call, and rushed into reception as fast as he possibly could. The receptionist was a really short guy with semi-long ginger hair, that came down to a little above his shoulders, and ginger freckles along his nose and part of his cheeks. He was wearing the same as what the male nurses wore, and he looked like he was just about to fall asleep, clearly he'd been on night shift, or he could just be incredibly bored from the lack of anything going on in this place. Finn stood in front of the desk and just stared at the receptionist for a while, he knew what he wanted to do and of course he knew what he was doing here but he couldn't figure out any words that would convey that to the receptionist, when he tried to talk, nothing came out, not even air.

The receptionist became much more alert when he saw Finn standing at the desk, but began to give him a strange look when Finn just stared at him, not saying a word.

"Are you okay?"

He said to Finn. Maybe he had lost his voice and that's why he couldn't speak, laryngitis was quite a common case at this hospital so it wouldn't have surprised him at all if Finn also had it and that was why he wasn't talking, only it was also obvious that Finn had been crying since his eyes were all red and puffy, or maybe it was an allergic reaction? That would explain everything as well. The receptionist went through a whole list of reasons in his head before Finn finally spoke up.

"M-My girlfriend... Sh-She's here... I-Is she?"

That was all he could manage at the current moment, everything was jumbled around in his head, and his emotions were doing things he was sure they could do. It was enough for the receptionist though, it was a very small hospital and they had a teenage girl brought in earlier, she'd got in a car crash and it was terrible.

"She's in the ICU, room 422. I'm not usually allowed to say that stuff unless you're family, but I like my exceptions."

He wanted to continue, but he couldn't say anything else, but there wouldn't have been much point anyway because as soon as Finn heard the room number he was gone.

Finn decided it would be much quicker to take to take the elevator to level 4 rather than use the stairs, despite the fact that he wasn't a fan of elevators at all. He closed the elevator doors and tapped in '4' on the keypad on the side of the wall, this way it would take 2 seconds to get there and he could be with Rachel. That was all the mattered to him, her.

About 2 minutes later, after traveling in the elevator and fast walking down the hallway to find room 422 Finn was at Rachel's room. He could sort of see through the glass door, however it was textured glass so it was more difficult and Finn was kind of thankful. Despite wanting to get to her as fast as possible, now he didn't think he could go in that room. He wasn't ready to see his girlfriend, his true love, broken. He needed to be there for her though, he promised her he always would be and it was driving him crazy that he couldn't just step inside that room. After 5 minutes of thinking and trying he finally opened the door and entered the room.

She lay in the bed unconscious, her leg was in a cast and it was hanging up in a sling that came down from the ceiling. She had stitches going down the side of her face and many bruises, her wrist was swollen and she was attached to a machine that was helping her to breathe. There were two different IV's in each of her wrists, and a band to monitor her blood pressure was also in her wrist via a needle. When Finn looked more closely he could also see there was a tube with something that looked like a mixture of fluids and blood coming from her abdomen and somewhere Finn couldn't see properly, it looked like one of those things that you have after surgery until it heals, one of the few things that Finn had learnt from his mom being a nurse that he had actually remembered. She had gauze around her head to stop some bleeding and her hair was sweaty and a little bloody. Her dads were sitting in chairs either side of her, one was sleeping, and the other was looking incredibly distressed, but suddenly relieved when Finn walked in.

This was too much for Finn to take in, he couldn't really cope with it at all... She looked so weak, and it stabbed him in the heart everytime he looked at her, but he needed to stay with her, he wanted to be there for her when she woke up, he loved her so much. He sat down in the chair next to the bed and took her hand, holding it gently but firmly, as to let her know that she was safe now and that he wasn't leaving. Her hand was sort of cold, but it was just like when it snowed and they went to that restaurant, warm on the inside and cold on the outside. It was also slightly discolored like the rest of her body. He didn't feel comfortable talking to Rachel's dads, or anyone really, so it was pretty much like he was there on his own. He couldn't do it, he needed someone else, but the only person he felt like he could maybe talk to was Kurt.

Kurt was always there when Finn needed him, and he was a great shoulder to not exactly cry on because Finn didn't usually cry, but when he had problems, Kurt was there. But it wasn't likely that anyone else would come, since it was during the school day and people would be in class, Finn should be too, but he didn't care. Rachel was way more important, Finn wasn't leaving. He texted Kurt, he knew that Kurt would do all he could to try to come and recently, they'd been getting on a lot more than before, which was great and made their parents extremely pleased, which was also great.

At the end of the day Kurt went straight to the hospital. He felt so bad because of course the teachers would have let him go if he'd told them during the day that his best friend had been in a car crash, but he left his phone in his locker and didn't get it out until he was ready to go home, it was then he received the terrible news. It couldn't be true, but Finn would never lie to Kurt, especially about something like that, never. So that meant it was true, but Kurt still couldn't believe it. Rachel... She was so small and even though she was very strong on the outside, she was fragile, and she was broken easily, despite the fact that she always tried so hard to be strong. It took Kurt 20 minutes to get from school to the hospital, and once he parked his car he ran into the hospital as fast as he could. The receptionist was still sitting where he had been when Finn had come in 6 hours before, only now he had his head buried in a book, reading intently. Kurt walked up to the desk, out of breath from running across the parking lot and in through the door.

"I-I'm here to see Rachel Berry, please tell me she's okay?"

Kurt said in an extremely worried tone, panting a little after finishing his sentence. The receptionist put his book down on the desk in front of him and looked up at Kurt who was standing in front of him.

"She's in the ICU, room 422, but she's already got three people in there, and I'm technically not allowed to let anyone but family in there..."

'ICU, that means Intensive Care Unit' Kurt thought to himself, suddenly getting 1000 times more scared and worried than he was before, but the receptionist hadn't fully answered his question yet.

"I-Is she okay"

Kurt said, but a few seconds later realizing how stupid that sounded since she obviously wasn't okay, but he hoped the receptionist would understand and finally answer his question.

"She's comatose. She suffered quite a blow to the head I think, there was lots of blood, but of course there would be, a car crashed into hers."

This could not be. Finn had only told Kurt that she'd been in a car crash, not that she's in a coma! Some people in comas don't wake up for months, sometimes years, and sometimes they dont wake up at all. He couldn't lose his best friend, yes they had had a lot of fights in the past, and they had a fight very recently about the fact that they both wanted to be Senior Class President, but he loved her, despite everything, and he couldn't even begin to think how Finn was coping which made him feel even worse for not coming earlier.

"You can have an hour, round about. Tell that tall boy that came in earlier too. Just between you and me okay?"

The receptionist said with a smile that was almost a smirk on his face as he looked at Kurt, trying to cheer him up a bit but clearly not being successful.

After thanking the receptionist Kurt took the elevator up to level 4, and once on level 4, headed down the hallway to find room 422. Inside, Finn was sitting in the chair next to Rachel's bed, holding her hand, and semi-falling asleep, whilst one of Rachel's dads sat on the other side looking very distressed. Kurt opened the door and slowly walked in, sitting down next to Finn and patting his shoulder.

"She'll be okay Finn, I know it. Rachel's so strong, she'll fight through this"

Kurt said, trying to keep calm. He really wasn't sure if she was actually going to be okay, but he knew his best friend was a fighter, and she would do anything to get what she wanted. This was extra hard for Kurt, he hated hospitals because of his past experiences in them. He remembered when he was 8 and his mom got ill, she'd been ill for quite a while before but not ill enough to need to be in hospital. They visited her all the time, every spare hour or a few, but things didn't get better then. Then last year he thought he was going to loose his father to a heart attack, thankfully things got so much better, but they were the worst days in his life and going into that hospital just brought bad memories.

Rachel's dads left to go bring back some food for everyone, despite the fact Finn telling them he didn't want to eat, and they didn't really want to eat themselves, but eating was important and therefore it was needed.

Finn gently stroked Rachel's hair, he really wished right now that he had his grilled cheesus from last year, everything that he prayed to it and asked to happen, happened. He'd beg and beg for his girlfriend to get better, but sadly he didn't have it. Despite the cuts on her face, she was still so beautiful, but it pained Finn to see her to lifeless and weak.

It wasn't even an hour later when quite a tall middle-aged woman who looked exactly like Rachel rushed into the room looking incredibly worried. Finn knew who she was straight away, Shelby Corcoran, Rachel's mother. Finn's first thought was 'What on earth is she doing here?' her and Rachel didn't exactly have the best relationship as far as he knew, but it made sense for her to be worried and wanna come here, after all Rachel was her daughter. Once the door was closed Shelby made her way over to one of the chairs next to Rachel's bed with tears on the brim of her eyes, just about to fall but teetering on the brink, she looked down at Rachel, and then up at Finn a few seconds later as if to question if she was going to be okay, without actually saying it, or saying any words at all, but when Finn didn't get the hint, she spoke up. Yes, she didn't really know her daughter that much, and they didn't really speak, but that didn't mean she didn't care. Of course she cared. Their relationship was just difficult. But she still cared.

"I-Is she gonna be okay?"

Finn swallowed really hard before attempting to answer her question. He really didn't want to have to talk to anyone right now, mainly because he was in such a vulnerable emotional state right now, and he knew that if he tried to talk, nothing would make sense due to everything.

"They hope so..."

Finn said with a shrug, almost going full on water works all over again, but he couldn't do that in front of Shelby, therefore he did all he could to try and not cry, just for the moment.

"She's got loads of broken bones, her nerves are messed up, she can't breathe properly cause of something, but they took it out, shes got some kind of head injury and i dont know what else but if you find a doctor they'll tell you"

Just as Finn finished his shaky sentence, as if he was on queue, Rachel's doctor entered the room for one of the few daily check-ups. He was carrying his clipboard, and looked confused when he saw Shelby sitting in the room next to Finn. He had no clue who she was and what she was doing there.

"Hello again. How is she? And hello, I don't believe we've met, I'm Doctor Robertson, Rachel's doctor"

The doctor said, shaking hands with Shelby and putting his clipboard down on the table at the end of the bed. He was hoping that by this introduction, he would then be introduced to her. She didn't look like she could be Rachel's friend, and strangely she looked very much like Rachel, it was uncanny. However he knew that Rachel only had two men as her parents, and as far as he was aware, she didn't have a mother.

A few seconds after the doctor introduced himself, Shelby returned the gesture with a firm handshake and as much of a smile as she could manage at that time, which wasn't much of a real smile, but she was an expert on show-faces and could fake a smile quite well.

"I'm Rachel's mother... Is she gonna be okay?"

'Rachel's mother?' the doctor thought to himself, very confused for a second, because he was rather sure she did not have a mother, there was nothing on her records, but after all everyone has a mother.

"She's currently comatose, her condition is quite a bad one. She has several broken bones, upper arm, wrist and ankle. The nerves in her lower back and legs were strongly impacted in the accident, causing her limited mobility, but with lots of physical therapy can be corrected. We will be operating to see if she can gain back full mobility with our specialist surgeon, unfortunately this cannot be done yet. We have operated to remove a piece of metal that was lodged in her left lung, and she had a majorly compressed abdomen which also needed surgery, huge pressure was put on her appendix which would have lead to a rupture if not corrected. She had a large impact to her head, which luckily did not cause any brain damage. We'll keep you updated if anything changes."

This was too much bad news for Shelby to take in straight away. Yes she had never really had that good relationship with Rachel, but she was her mother, and she did deeply care about her. It hurt her so badly to see her daughter like that, and even more to hear from the doctor that she had so many things wrong with her, some may not be able to be fixed. She sat down in the chair and did not reply to the doctor, or attempt to speak to Finn who was sitting in the opposite chair and stroking the palm of Rachel's hand softly with his thumb.

After a few minutes of silence, Rachel's dads arrived back from fetching food from the hospital café on the first floor, and didn't even manage to get inside the room and put down the food for themselves and Finn before they noticed Shelby Corcoran sitting in one of the chairs inside the room. What on earth was she doing there? She wasn't allowed to contact Rachel until she was 18! They had made that clear in the contract she signed 17 years ago. She needed to leave, she had no business here!

"Shelby Corcoran! What are you doing here?"

One of Rachel's dads said in complete fury

"You're not allowed to contact her until she's 18! You know that! You're breaching our contract! Please leave right this minute."

Rachel's other dad continued on, with a much calmer, but still stern approach. Finn had never seen them like that before, it was a little scary to be honest. He didn't want to be in Shelby's position right now, but technically she hadn't even done anything wrong.

"She came to me two years ago, we've been in contact ever since. I have a right to be here, she's my daughter! And right now, we should all be there for her, and not fighting about trivial things, she needs us right now despite the fact that she isn't conscious, she'd hate us to be fighting, it's not helping at all."

An awkward silence filled the room, and no one spoke a single word for a long time, no one knew the exact time though, just that it seemed like forever. Everyone just looked around the room, at the floor, out the window, read magazines or looked worriedly at Rachel, until Shelby broke the silence announcing that she was leaving, and she'd come back when she could to see how Rachel was.

There wasn't much to say, and there wasn't really anything anyone wanted to say. Finn liked to think him and Kurt had some kind of telepathic link, Kurt knew everything, there was no need for a single word in order for him to understand. It was a long night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys :) Sorry it's been a while since I updated, I've been busy :( and this chapter was really messed up so it took a while to sort it out and make it actually so I could upload it xD This chapter introduces the AU, where pretty much everything is different :) I hope you guys like it :)**

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Rachel found herself walking through the doors of McKinley High and entering the school, everything seemed perfectly normal, which made her incredibly confused, one she had no idea how she'd got there, it had just appeared, and two, she didn't feel the same as usual, something was different but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. Rachel strode to her locker and started to open it, when she spotted Quinn Fabray, 2 lockers down from her wearing a blue sweater with an owl on it much like one that Rachel owned herself, she was also wearing a blue headband and a blue checked skirt with White knee socks, this was strange because this wasn't how Quinn normally dressed. Rachel walked up to Quinn to question her clothing choice, maybe she had finally made an impact and her dress sense was finally what everyone as wearing! That would be great, even though Rachel doubted that was actually true, as her last attempt hadn't exactly been successful. She stood next to Quinn and smiled as Quinn closed her locker.

"Why hello Quinn! Your clothing choice is very different to usual, may I ask why?"

Rachel questioned, smiling all the time and hoping that she wasn't being invasive, but she wanted to know, and if it was what she thought she would be incredibly happy. Even happier than she currently was, which was already very happy.

Quinn looked slightly confused at the person she thought was her girlfriend, but there was something very different about Rachel, she wasn't wearing her usual choice of a sundress and cardigan, instead she looked much like Quinn, and she was talking extremely confidently as well, her Rachel was very shy, and often talked quite quietly, but a little bit louder when she was speaking to Quinn, she'd also often stumble over words, which this Rachel hadn't at all, and also the fact that Rachel thought that Quinn was different? Well she had brought some new socks, and she was wearing them, but Rachel wasn't usually one to notice small things like that

"You noticed?"

Quinn smiled widely she was very happy if Rachel actually had noticed, she wasn't usually one to notice anything different about Quinn, if she'd changed her hair, or worn more makeup, it always took a while. However, her happy expression turned into a confused one when she noticed Rachel was wearing almost the same clothes as her. What was going on? Had her girlfriend decided to copy her ordinary clothing choices because she loved her so much? If so, that was the sweetest thing ever, and the best early 4 month anniversary present as well!

Rachel smiled widely because she thought that she had finally made an impact, it had actually come true. Her style of clothing was now what everyone was wearing, well maybe not everyone just yet, but Quinn wearing it, was such an amazing start, everyone would follow her lead.

"Yes! I did notice! Thankyou so much Quinn, I know we've never really been friends, but this was so nice of you!"

This made Quinn even more confused than she currently was. They weren't friends? From Quinn's memory, they had always been friends, since they were little. They used to go round each other's houses and they'd play together and sing together, they even had ballet class together! And now Rachel was Quinn's girlfriend, but apparently now they're not friends? Maybe she needed to lie down Quinn thought to herself, maybe it was because she had changed her daily smoothie recipe this morning because she wanted to try something different, or maybe she was sick. No, she never got sick, she couldn't. That would be a complete and utter disaster. _"Calm Down Quinn" _She thought to herself, No need to get worked up over something that wasn't actually happening yet, but she tended to do that a lot anyway.

"I'm gonna hug you now!"

Rachel said with a big smile on her face as she reached out to give Quinn a huge hug. Quinn loved it when Rachel hugged her, for such a tiny person who hardly ever spoke, her hugs were more powerful than anything, they were so warm and welcoming, and whenever Rachel hugged Quinn, she felt so incredibly happy and safe, it was an amazing feeling, and whenever Rachel hugged someone she would always say _'I'm gonna hug you now!'_before she hugged them, it was so cute.

Rachel smiled and walked away before Quinn had a chance to ask her where she was going, or try to figure out what was going on.

Rachel carried her books down the hall and continued walking when she saw Finn Hudson come out of the film room where the AV club was held, not realising he was any different straight away because she was just so incredibly happy to see him, she rushed towards him

"Finn!"

She shouted, rather loudly causing everyone to turn and look, this didn't bother Rachel though, she didn't really even notice, she just continued rushing towards Finn. When she met him at the other end of the hallway she gave him the biggest hug ever, she was so happy to see him, finally someone who could sort this mess out, Finn was sure to know what was going on, he always did.

"I missed you so much! I'm so glad you're here! I had the worst nightmare last night, I had got into an accident in the morning, on the way to school I think it was, and I remember it really vividly, and the pain was like it was real... It was truly scary."

Rachel stopped as she thought of how badly it had hurt. It felt like the pain would never stop, she thought she wasn't going to make it, and the worst part was the it felt so real, it felt like it was actually happening, no dream had ever been that realistic before, but of course it was a dream, it was clearly the hot cocoa she'd had before bed that night, usually the two were put together when she had dreams like that, however it wasn't always the cause.

"And why is Quinn dressed like me?"

Rachel could have continued talking really fast like she usually did when she had lots to say, or if she was excited, but Finn nervously stopped her.

"R-Rachel..."

Finn was very surprised she was talking to him, most girls avoided him because he really wasn't popular at all, being in the chess club and the AV club, and the glee club, the three most unpopular clubs in the school, he didn't really get many girls, or any at all infact. He had always wanted Rachel to at least look at him, smile at him, share a glance with him, but she was always too busy with Quinn. Why was she talking to him now? They weren't even friends as far as he was concerned, even though he wished they could be.

"R-Rachel... Slow down. What happened? Why aren't you telling Quinn this? She is your girlfriend after all, you don't normally speak to me, w-we're not even friends I don't think..."

Rachel's face turned like she had just been hit by a ton of bricks, Quinn Fabray? Her girlfriend? Not as far as she knew. She'd only recently become 'kind of friends' with Quinn, what has she been telling people? Or was it Santana? And not talking to Finn? She talked to Finn every day; they were boyfriend and girlfriend so of course they talked!

"W-W-Wait... Quinn? As in Quinn Fabray? We've never really been friends, she said we're kind of friends but she's not, and never has been my girlfriend, you're my boyfriend, I love you remember? What's even going on? And why are you wearing glasses? I didn't know you wore glasses, they're so cute though."

They really were. Finn looked adorable in that outfit, combined with the glasses, it was great, but sudden, why hadn't he talked to her about something drastic like this? And why hadn't he told her he was planning on joining the AV club, not that she minded, but they were in a relationship, and she would have liked to have been informed, so she could tell him how great it was, without it being a total surprise. Rachel could have continued talking, but Finn stopped her, for the second time within about 5 minutes.

"Rachel, Rachel, calm down. Woah, I didn't know you could talk so fast, you never usually talk at all... And Quinn is your girlfriend remember? I wish I was your boyfriend but you're always too busy being in love with Quinn, the star of glee club and the lead in every single musical that is ever put on in school, and in community theatre, you'd never go out with a nerd like me... Did you hit your head or something? I hope you're okay."

And with those comments, Rachel's face turned even more bewildered then it had before. She looked offended at the 'Did you hit your head or something' comment, it was nice that he cared about her, of course he did they were together, but looking at her, and talking to her like she's crazy, _"I'm not at all different to usual" _Rachel thought to herself. It was just ordinary Rachel Berry; on what she thought was an ordinary day. She really had no idea what was going on at all, there was no way that Quinn was her girlfriend, she didn't even like girls, and her boyfriend is Finn. Maybe she had bumped her head or something this morning, but she couldn't remember at all, however that would explain everything. Or maybe this was the dream? It had to be, there was only one other option, it was all a big setup. Who would do that though? A dream was way more likely.

"I had a really vivid nightmare about crashing my car, at least I think it was, it seemed so real but it can't have been, maybe I hit my head then... But I can't really remember, I don't even know how I got here... Nevermind... I guess, I'll see you in glee club."

Rachel said, walking away briskly hoping not to cause anymore confusion. She'd just calmly go to class and everything will be okay, and hopefully go back to normal. Rachel walked into her geometry class and sat down in her usual seat, immediately she was approached by Brittany S. Pierce, who sat down just one seat behind Rachel in class usually.

"Why are you dressed all funny Rachel?"

Brittany didn't expect Rachel to talk back because most of the time she didn't speak a word, Brittany had often wondered if Rachel could actually talk, which made her also wonder it was it possible for someone to not be able to talk, but still be able to sing... this puzzled Brittany a great deal.

"I'm not, this is how I usually dress Brittany"

Rachel replied, smiling widely at Brittany. Why did she think Rachel was wearing funny clothes? She didn't think her clothes were funny, they were just right for the purpose or going to school and they were just right for the weather as well, there was simply nothing funny about them.

Rachel got out her books, and began to write down the date and the lesson objectives that were written up on the board, when a rather small Asian girl approached her. She had long dark brown hair, which had four red streaks in it, very evenly positioned as well, dark brown eyes and she was wearing a cheerio's uniform. She was also being followed by a larger dark skinned girl who reminded Rachel very much of Mercedes Jones but didn't entirely look like her, and since when had Mercedes rejoined the Cheerios? They were both being followed by a taller light brown haired girl, who also had brown eyes like the other two, and she looked vaguely like Sugar Motta, but she was also wearing a Cheerio's uniform. Rachel just had to pinch herself and maybe she would wake up and everything would be normal again, however that was not exactly the case. The girls proceeded much like Rachel had seen Quinn and Santana and Brittany do, back in Sophomore and Junior year, they walked with all the power in the world, people parted like the red sea before them, and some of them it certainly looked like they were bowing, but from their seats so it looked rather strange. They stood in front of Rachel and glared at her, but she hadn't yet noticed, therefore she continued looking to the front of the classroom waiting for class to start. Suddenly she felt a sharp jab in the back coming from Brittany, which caused Rachel to jump rather high in her seat because of the shock. Laughter spread throughout the room, started by the girls and continued by everyone else, who probably only just laughed because the girls did.

"What is it Brittany? I'm not letting you copy my work, last time you copied, and I didn't even know you were doing it, then I got detention for copying your work!"

Rachel said, slightly angrily now. Brittany's face went from a smile to a very sad look within a split second.

"I'm sorry... But I don't even remember that... Why would I copy you? You're my best friend, I don't wanna get you in trouble! But... I think they wanna sit where you're sitting..."

Brittany said in a sort of shaky voice, wavering between trying not to cry and trying to sound slightly mad at Rachel. She was supposed to be her best friend, why would she accuse her of cheating? Brittany would never do that... She didn't need to, Santana did all her homework for her so it wasn't like she actually needed to know stuff to pass a class, because Santana knew lots of stuff.

Rachel got up and moved to the seat next to Brittany, even though she would much rather be sitting on her own, with her usual window seat. As the teacher was still preparing the lesson, Rachel leant over the table and began to speak to the girls in front of her.

"When did you guys join the Cheerio's? Why? I thought you hated Coach Sylvester?"

The asian one, who she now recognised as Tina Cohen-Chang spoke up first, but not in Tina's usual friendly and calm tone of voice, it was very much the opposite.

"Shut it hobbit. And since when did you start speaking? And wearing those hideous animal sweaters? Ugh. You make me sick."

Rachel recognised this, but it much seemed like Tina had switched personalities with Santana in what seemed like over night?

"I'm head cheerio and I don't have to listen to you, now go away and stop talking to me."

Rachel put down her pen and held her arm out in front of Brittany, closing her eyes tight because she really didn't like pinches but it had to be done to find out whether she was having a very weird nightmare or not. Maybe she had hot cocoa right before bed again, her dads had told her not to do that again when she had got nightmares from it before, but this was worse.. This seemed so real...

"Pinch me... Just do it... I must be having a nightmare or something... I had hot cocoa before bed again, that's never good..."

Brittany pinched Rachel's arm so hard that Rachel let out an extremely loud and piercing scream, running through the hallways and the classrooms like lightning. There were nail marks left on Rachel's arm, and part of it had become very red. The teacher turned around suddenly and gave Rachel a very concerned look.

"Are you okay Rachel? Maybe you should go to the nurse?"

Rachel nodded and hastily rushed out of the room, however she didn't go to the nurse's office, she went and sat in the library to cool off for a bit. What on earth was going on? School didn't seem any different, but everything was different... She was apparently dating Quinn, and Finn and Puck were nerds, Brittany... Well she wasn't that much different, but Tina and Mercedes were head Cheerios? This made no sense.

After sitting in the library and looking through sheet music for a while to calm herself down, Rachel decided it was probably time to head to her next class. Rachel arrived at the classroom and was about to walk through the door and back into class when a girl who when Rachel actually saw her face looked very much like Santana Lopez, walked straight into Rachel. That was it. Rachel was going to end this, it was not clever and yes while it was a very good prank idea, it was incredibly mean and immature.

"Santana! I know your behind this! This is exactly the type of thing I can see you doing just to mess with my head! Well it's not working and it's childish!"

Santana was wearing a white shirt with a red vest over the top of it, and black smart pants to go with it. She had no idea what Rachel was talking about, this better not be another one of those pranks that the Cheerios played on people and the blamed on the 'nerds' because she'd had enough of them! It wasn't funny and it made her feel terrible.

"Did they do it again? I'm sorry Rachel but you know it's not my fault, they just pick on me! There's nothing wrong with knowing stuff... It's their own fault they don't pay attention in class and therefore, their grades are lacking."

_"What did who do?"_Rachel thought to herself. No one had done anything apart from Santana, and she was totally right about there being nothing wrong with knowing stuff, that was very true, but so not like Santana, and Rachel was fed up.

"Santana I'm serious! I've had enough of everyone pretending to be someone else, and Finn? My own boyfriend helping you with your ridiculous scheme? This is low even for you."

The only problem with Rachel's argument was that Santana was 100% serious in what she told Rachel. She would never dream of hurting anyone, especially Rachel. They weren't really friends, but Rachel meant so much to Britt, and Britt meant so much to Santana, Rachel was just hard to become friends with because she didn't really talk and neither did Santana. She'd only managed to finally get with Brittany because of Kurt and Finn, they'd set them up and it went amazing. Kurt gave Santana a makeover and Finn convinced Brittany to go on a date with her. Once on the date, Santana and Brittany had just clicked, it was just like that, like they were and had always meant to be, soulmates. Brittany loved Santana's old clothes, she didn't need to change one bit, she loved her just the way she was.

Makeovers were Kurt's specialty, and he absolutely loved giving them to anyone who was interested, particularly his best friend Rachel, the only problem was that she was always so shy and uncomfortable, she mostly said no to his offers and she hardly ever spoke so they never really had a good conversation about anything, but they were still best friends. They just had this connection that Kurt didn't have with anyone else, something special. It was a massive surprise for him when Rachel came skipping up to him that day, beaming a megawatt smile and talking at a pace of what seemed to Kurt 1000 words per second, that definitely wasn't usual for Rachel, not ever. He loved her new found confidence though, it was so invigorating, and he was happy for her. She was confused over the fact that Quinn had asked her earlier that day if she'd remembered it was their 4 month anniversary in two days, which of course Rachel did not know, she'd only just found out she was dating Quinn. Now she'd have to go on an actual date with her? Kurt knew now was the time to seize the opportunity, Rachel definitely needed a makeover, what was she wearing? Animal sweaters are for toddlers, not 17 year olds.

"That's great! But do you know what would be even better? A makeover!"

Kurt said, whilst looking Rachel up and down, making a not impressed expression on his face showing her exactly what he meant, or at least trying to.

"You need a new look Rachel. I say we ditch what you usually wear, and definitely the animal sweater, where did that come from? Quinn will love it, she'll be blown away. How about you come to my house before your date? It'll be the perfect anniversary present for Quinn!"

After giving Kurt an offended look, she loved her animal sweaters, they were comfortable, and adorable at the same time, but Kurt still stood strong in the idea of the makeover, so Rachel nodded at first just accepting, then excitedly, she loved spending time with Kurt, and he really was great at that kind of things, but she was also really nervous. She still didn't know how she felt about being Quinn's girlfriend, she certainly didn't remember this happening, she was only 'kind of' friends with Quinn, but she did care so much about Quinn, she always had, maybe there was something there? Maybe she did have feelings for Quinn and that was why she was always thinking about Quinn, and caring so much about Quinn, that would explain so much, but Rachel still was in a state of confusion and unease.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys :) I'm so so sorry I haven't been able to update lately, I've been loaded with college assignments :( Here's the next chapter, enjoy! :D**

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Two and a half weeks had gone by, and by now all of the hospital staff knew Finn's name and it didn't even matter him being there when it wasn't visiting hours anymore, even though that hadn't mattered to Finn before, there were always some doctor who'd tell him to go, but he didn't care. Now everyone knew him, and he was greeted every morning with coffees, and snacks to keep him going, as everyone knew by now he wasn't leaving.

New Directions had come to visit a few hours before, but most of them only stayed for 5 minutes after either being told there were too many people in the room, or not being able to handle much longer. The only person who stayed longer was Quinn Fabray, who had brought flowers and a great card which really brightened up the room and made it less negative and gloomy.

Quinn had clearly been crying. Her eyes were still puffy and slightly red and her White dress and denim jacket had tear stains all over them. Despite the fact that she was desperately trying to hold in the tears, Finn could tell she could start crying again any moment. He wanted to comfort her, but couldn't quite work up enough positive energy to actually do so. He had no idea why she hadn't left when everyone else did several hours earlier, but it was like she was refusing to leave without actually saying it. She hadn't even said a thing since everyone had left, and she didn't talk much when everyone was there either, it had really hit her hard.

Finn slowly got up and walked over to Quinn. She was standing at the bottom end of the room, pacing up and down and up and down, which she had been doing for at least the last hour. Despite his positive energy still not being very high at all, his friend needed him, they needed to talk.

Quinn noticed Finn was slowly walking up to her, and paused her pacing for a couple of seconds. She felt incredibly sick probably from the rush of emotions she was and had been experiencing since she arrived that morning, worry, fear, sadness, and a whole load more, just like an explosion of emotions that would not go away. She couldn't handle seeing Rachel like that, yet she couldn't bring herself to leave. Her and Rachel had never really been friends until recently, infact they had been the total opposite, enemies. However, Quinn had never hated Rachel, she just pretended to hide her true feelings, she was so confused about the whole situation, she thought it would be better just to pretend they didn't exist, but that was so much harder than it sounded. For three years Quinn had hidden her feelings, and she couldn't anymore, but just that was terrifying. She'd been brought up in a household that had taught her that loving someone the same sex as you was the worst sin, but now, she was in love with Rachel Berry. Extra problem, so was Finn Hudson. That was why seeing Rachel like that hurt her so badly, and yes everyone was hurt and distraught, even Santana, but with Quinn it was so much worse. She wanted to sit down next to Rachel, hold her soft hand and protect her from anything that might harm her, but there was Finn Hudson. She didn't have anything against Finn, he was her first love, and first loves mean something forever, but they were so happy together, meaning there was no hope for Quinn.

Finn put his hand on Quinn's shoulder and stroked it gently, trying to comfort her as best he could, but she didn't seem to want it as she lifted his hand off and continued pacing up and down. Finn stopped her pacing once again with a gentle stroke on her back, which again she wasn't interested, but did not go back to pacing, this time she just stood and looked at Rachel with tear filled eyes.

"Quinn..."

Finn spoke up; it was awkward with them both in the room and no one even speaking a word. And yes, they hadn't really spoken since they broke up last year, but Finn thought they were friends, and friends were always there for eachother. Quinn turned to Finn and wiped some of the tears away from her eyes, trying not to let him see her cry.

"What... I don't need your comfort Finn. It's fine. We haven't talked for a year, there's nothing to say"

Last time they had talked properly was when they had broken up. Finn told Quinn that she didn't ever feel anything and simply that she was heartless, which really hurt her, and she hadn't forgotten for one second.  
She was here for Rachel, and she did not wish to make conversation with Finn, however she was in need of a friend, and he'd have to do. Before Finn had a chance to speak, Quinn's head was on his shoulder and she was full on crying. It took a lot for Finn not to cry as well, but he'd never cried in front of anyone who wasn't his mom or Kurt, they didn't judge, but with Quinn, word could get to Santana, and Finn's life would be made a misery.

A few minutes later Quinn stood up again, wiping her eyes and grabbing her bag from the chair next to the door, starting to walk towards the door.

"I'm so sorry Finn... I-I have to go..."

Quinn said as she promptly left the room and started to head home. She needed to stay, but Finn wasn't leaving, he'd made that clear, therefore she had to, and she simply couldn't do it any longer, it was too hard.

The end of another day was approaching, and Finn was once again exhausted and losing hope. It had been two weeks and a half weeks, nearly three weeks, and that was a long time, but nothing was any different from the beginning. Not a single thing had changed, and it didn't seem like his girlfriend was going to wake up anytime soon, he didn't know what to do. They'd make him go home and/or go back to school soon, and even though Rachel had her dads who were there every single day, but not necessarily all day because they had to talk to doctors and get food and sometimes just go outside and take a breather from all the stress, but Finn, he never left, except to pee, but there was a toilet in the room so he wasn't really gone, he didn't leave the room. He didn't want to go back to school, he promised Rachel he'd stay, and that he would do.

Three weeks.

It was believed that people in coma's can hear what you are saying, and frankly it was quite comforting to do, so Finn had started talking to Rachel, just talking, letting off some steam, what if she could hear what he was saying? He imagined what she'd say to him, and her beautiful smile. He kept telling her what had happened in the day, if she'd had any visitors, or gifts, or really anything that he thought she might want to know and sometimes just begging for her to wake up.

Santana thought he was crazy and endlessly insulted him when she and Brittany came to visit, but that wasn't any different from usual, and Finn knew he was not crazy, he was sure of it. Maybe, she couldn't hear him, but what if she could?

One day, during the third week, Jacob came in telling Finn that there were visitors. He said that usually since they were not immediate family they wouldn't be allowed to stay for longer, but Jacob always made exceptions. Once again, the visitors were Santana and Brittany. Brittany was carrying a massive stuffed teddy bear, along with the third card she'd made for Rachel, and another bunch of flowers. It was quite entertaining for Finn watching her try to walk whilst carrying it all. After the struggle with getting the bear through the door, Brittany put the card on the table with the rest, and the bear in the corner of the room so it would hopefully be the first thing Rachel saw when she woke up. The card this time read 'I know you'll get better' and underneath Britt had drawn a picture of Rachel's face that was happy and smiling brightly. It was great, and it really cheered Finn up, so he knew Rachel would love it.

Santana was the exact opposite however. Finn could tell she didn't want to be here, whether it was that she didn't care about Rachel, or that she really did care on the inside, and it was too much for her. Finn knew Santana wasn't heartless, she could pretend she didn't care all she wanted, she wasn't fooling anyone. She just stood in the corner looking uncomfortable whilst Brittany sat next to Rachel and told her she knew she'd get better, and she couldn't wait to give her all her presents when she woke up.

After an hour of lots of talking, and sitting, and talking, Santana said that they had to go. Brittany was reluctant to leave, but she knew they needed to go, for Santana. She wasn't happy, and she hated seeing Santana so, not like Santana, it broke her heart.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! :D I'm sooooo sorry I haven't uploaded in a while :( I've been so busy with college assignments I haven't had much time to write, and also a tinsy bit of writers block xD But it's my christmas break now, so hopefully I'll get a few more chapters uploaded before the new year! :D This chapter is set back in the AU, before Quinn and Rachel's date, I hope you guys like it! :D Thankyou for all of your reviews :) I'm so glad you're liking it so far!**

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The night finally came, and Rachel arrived promptly at Kurt's house for 5, two hours before her date with Quinn. She was nervous as she knocked on the door, wondering if anything will be different since everything else seemed to be, luckily Kurt answered the door with her first knock, he'd clearly been standing there and waiting for her which was nice.

Kurt knew how shy Rachel was, and often if she was around too many people, or around people who weren't her friends nothing good ever happened in terms of being sick, or sometimes passing out. He knew he'd be doing her a massive favour by being there when she came to the door, that way she would see a friendly face rather than a familiar, but not a face of a friend, if his mother or father answered the door. (In this universe, Carole has always been Kurt's mother and Finn has always been Kurt's brother) It was rather strange the other day when Rachel was talking so fast, and so much, but after careful thought, it all made sense to Kurt. She was trying to impress Quinn by becoming more confident, or at least trying to. Despite the fact that Quinn loved Rachel so much the way she was, Rachel had always thought she needed to become more confident for Quinn, and herself, but mainly Quinn. It all made sense now. Kurt opened the door and smiled at Rachel, who was looking so much more normal than she had the other day at school when they had talked. She was wearing her favourite navy blue cardigan with White dogs on it, a White sundress and black ballet pumps, this was the Rachel he knew back again.

"Rachel!"

Kurt's smile grew wider and brighter as he showed Rachel inside, and closed the door behind her as she entered and stood in front of the stairs.

Kurt's house looked almost exactly the same, however the pictures on the walls were different. Instead of pictures of Kurt, and pictures of Finn separately, and then pictures of the family once it became one, there were pictures of Kurt and Finn growing up, but they were together. There was also a picture of a wedding, and the people in the picture were clearly Burt and Carole, but they were in their 20's, not at all recently.

"Kurt, I'm nervous."

Rachel said quietly, trying to keep her voice down as if she had something she didn't want anyone else hearing, however for Kurt that wasn't any different to how she usually talked, he had no clue.

"You'll look stunning, promise. Let's go upstairs."

Kurt said, smiling encouragingly. She was always nervous before everything, but he knew she'd be just fine. Despite her shyness, she was very strong and could handle almost anything even though she didn't believe she could, Kurt knew it, and he always told her.

Rachel wasn't nervous about the makeover though, she was nervous about her date with Quinn. What was she supposed to do? Did they have things in common that they could talk about? Her dates with Finn involved an awful lot of kissing, and then a cuddle and a chat, most of the time they'd fit a movie in there as well if they felt like it, but not all the time. She couldn't kiss Quinn... She's Quinn...

Kurt lead Rachel upstairs and into his bedroom, slowly sitting her down on the stool in front of the vanity, and then sitting himself down on his bed, softly smiling at Rachel as he faced her.

"Right, first we'll do clothes, then I'll do your makeup and hair. I selected a good couple of outfits that'll suit you perfectly, I'll show you each outfit, and then I'll show you what I got you for tonight, you're gonna love it!"

Kurt laid down four outfits across his bed, and began showing them to Rachel, with great deals of bright smiles and happy gestures throughout.

The first outfit had a pair of semi-skinny jeans, standard denim, and quite rough condition as that was how everyone wore their jeans, it was the look everyone wanted. The top for this outfit consisted of a stripy White and navy t-shirt, with a black leather type jacket. Rachel thought it was great, but she really couldn't see herself in it, she much preferred her animal sweaters with little dogs, horses or owls on them, however she knew Kurt knew best, this was his thing.

The next outfit consisted of a pair of black semi-skinny jeans, put together with a pair of high black boots and a White/grey over the shoulder t-shirt with the word 'love' written across it in a medium grey. Rachel did love this outfit, it looked really great, and made her look like a celebrity or something, but it was so different from what she was used it, it would take some time to adjust.

The next two outfits were extremely similar to the first two, only they were kind of like a mix and match with different colours, patterns and styles.

The real surprise was when Kurt brought out the outfit he'd picked for Rachel's date with Quinn, it was beautiful. Since they were going out to a restaurant and then a movie, Kurt decided on smart/casual, smart enough for the restaurant, and casual for the movies. It was a great in-between style for when you don't want to be too formal, but you don't want to dress casual either. Perfect for this occasion.

Kurt brought out

...

"Now, time for your makeup!"

Kurt smiled widely as he spoke, once again sitting Rachel down at the vanity, looking over her head into the mirror and getting out a selection of different makeup products from a bag that sat on his bed. In order for her not to get makeup in her hair, and to make it easier for Kurt to apply it, he put a headband around Rachel's head to hold back her bangs temporarily whilst he did her makeup.

"This is going to be great. Gorgeous. Just sit back and relax."

Kurt said, picking up a small pad and beginning to apply makeup to Rachel's face. Rachel sat back on the chair and became incredibly comfortable. 'Was this a new chair?' She thought to herself, it was like luxury. So good. She closed her eyes as she felt the pad slowly moving across her face, full relaxation mode, all the troubles she had before, temporarily gone.

"Thankyou so much Kurt, I'm not as nervous anymore."

That was the most Rachel had talked since she had arrived, and even though Kurt had not expected anymore, he had to admit he did like the more talkative Rachel he'd seen the other day. He was so glad she was happy with everything though, he'd tried really hard to gather a selection that would not only suit her and look gorgeous, they'd be perfect in every way, and Quinn would be in awe. To put it simply, he wanted his best friends to be together forever, and not just because they were both of his best friends, that wasn't even a reason. He'd never seen anyone make Rachel that confident and that happy before. Before Quinn, she was just this shy girl who didn't talk to anyone (except for Kurt) and was pretty much invisible to the world, which wasn't a good thing and often made her quite upset, then along came Quinn, the first person who could bring her out of her shell. Yes her and Quinn had been friends since they were little, but this was different, this was true love, it was meant to be. Kurt had also never seen anyone who could make Quinn that happy. With all the terrible things she'd had to endure in her life, she wasn't happy most of the time, yet with Rachel, her smile is so big, bright and 100% genuine, it could light up an arena.

Kurt finished applying foundation to Rachel's face, and next it was time for mascara. He picked up the brush and started gently brushing it over Rachel's eyelashes for a few coats. It made him really happy to see her so relaxed, usually she wasn't at all relaxed for anything, and it took quite a bit of effort to get to her to calm down and relax for a short while, but now, she was more relaxed then Kurt had ever seen her, and it was great, that meant she was happy. Precisely why he wanted her to be with Quinn forever.

He finished applying smokey coloured eye shadow a few minutes later, just as Rachel slowly opened her eyes to see how it looked so far, but Kurt wasn't done yet. He didn't want her to see before he was finished, that would ruin everything by much lessening the surprise at the end.

"Close your eyes! I'm not done yet!"

Kurt chuckled, as he began applying a small amount of blush along Rachel's cheekbones and then continuing to pick up a small tube of lip gloss and gently spread it across Rachel's lips.

"All done! Okay you can open your eyes now"

Kurt chuckled again, as Rachel slowly opened her eyes, and looked at herself in the mirror in pure amazement and awe. She looked stunning, anyone had to admit that, beyond stunning, and she was definitely going to blow Quinn away at their date, it was perfect. To the point where Kurt forgot he hadn't done her hair or anything else yet, until a few seconds later.

"Okay, nearly there! You look gorgeous Rachel"

Kurt said with a large smile, picking up his curling tongs and starting on her hair.

"This'll make you look even more stunning. Then we have a few little things to do that'll enhance the look such as jewellery and a little waxing up there"

Kurt said as he pointed at Rachel's eyebrows. As soon as she understood what he meant she covered them up with her hands and refused to remove them. Waxing? No way. That would hurt really bad and Rachel Berry doesn't not have a very high pain tolerance. She would simply not allow it, she liked her eyebrows how they were 'They look fine' Rachel thought to herself.

"It'll be fine Rachel, won't hurt a bit, and it only takes a second. We just put it on there, and then pull it right off again, sorted."

Kurt said knowingly. He clearly did know what he was doing, maybe she should trust him more, and she did trust him fully, it was just that he didn't have a not very good pain tolerance like her, therefore his definition of hurt is different to hers and she knew it would hurt, that sort of thing always did. It was like when she was little and her daddies had taken her to get her ears pierced, they promised her it wouldn't hurt, but it did, quite a bit, not as much as she had expected though. She didn't want to do that again, she hardly ever wore earrings anyway, she wasn't sure if she wanted to, or not, but mainly because recently she'd found the holes had actually began to close up.

A few minutes later, Kurt finished doing Rachel's hair and sat down for a minute to observe. Her hair was in beautiful light curls, that flowed gently when she moved, he'd done a great job.  
He turned Rachel to the mirror so she could look at herself and tell Kurt what she thought.

Rachel was amazed, Kurt was truly a genius. He was totally right when he said that Quinn would be blown away, even Rachel was! This was amazing. She'd love to keep it like that forever, but she wasn't exactly good with a curling iron like Kurt was, so it probably wouldn't look very good if she tried. But now, it was time for the hard part.

Kurt picked up two strips of Rachel wasn't sure what they were, but she assumed they were for her eyebrows, and she wasn't looking forward to it. He then placed one onto one of Rachel's eyebrows. She was right, and now he was going to rip it off and it was going to hurt so badly. It didn't hurt at all being put on, it felt strange and kind of tingly, but she could focus on that as she knew it was going to hurt bad when he pulled it off. Just when she wasn't expecting it, Kurt ripped it off and Rachel could feel a strong burning sensation in her eyebrows, it wasn't pleasant at all.

"OUCH!"

She screamed as Kurt ripped it off and the burning sensation began. Rachel covered her eyebrows, one because it was hurting real bad, and the other because there was no way she was letting Kurt do the other one after that. Why couldn't he have done both at the same time if even at all? He really thought one at a time would be best? But as soon as she lifted her hand for a second, there was the other one, just the same as before, and a few seconds later, Kurt ripped it off. Now there was a burning sensation in both of Rachel's eyebrows, and she didn't think she could do anything to make it go away.

"Beautiful."

Kurt said, observing Rachel's new look, it was truly a masterpiece in his opinion.

"Now onto jewellery."

Kurt said with a smile. He fished out a gold necklace, with her girlfriends name on it and sparkles around it, it was beautiful. Gold was Rachel's favourite, especially gold stars, they were a metaphor for her being a star which of course she was, and the name in the necklace looked beautiful, it was very much like her necklace she had that said 'Finn' only it was Quinn instead.

"It's beautiful Kurt, how did you get it? It says Quinn!"

Rachel beamed her megawatt smile, which was a very usual occurrence for Rachel, but Kurt wasn't used to her smiling so much, it was great to see her so happy.

"I got it especially made, needless to say, I know people."

This time, it was Kurt with the beaming smile. He was very good friends with the local jeweller, so if he wanted anything, he could easily get it without trouble, and not for a very high price, which was great. Kurt put the necklace around Rachel's neck, and gently did it up, trying carefully not to catch her hair or skin in the necklace as that would have hurt a lot.

"I love it so much Kurt, thank you, thank you."

Rachel said, not noticing as Kurt rummaged into a cupboard, pulling out a needle and sterilising it.

"Next part of the date makeover extravaganza!"

Kurt said with a giant beaming smile, as he walked towards Rachel who had an increasingly scared expression on her face.

"What on earth?"

Rachel said, standing up and walking away from the vanity, over to the other side of the room.

"Come on, it won't even hurt. You'll be fine, promise. Now, sit down and relax."

Kurt said calmly, smiling and trying to comfort Rachel, but she wasn't having it. She walked to the other side of the room, and the sat down on Kurt's bed.

"No way. Nuh-Uh. No way. I'm fine as is, you did great Kurt, so no way."

There was no way that Rachel was going to let him do that, ever. Was he mad? Yes it would probably look great, but it would hurt incredibly bad, and they only had 20 minutes until she had to head off to her date with Quinn!

Kurt decided that giving up was the best option, he'd never do anything that Rachel didn't want, and even though she had said to him many times that she did, she was just way too nervous, he thought he'd be doing her a favour. He sat down on the bed next to her and patted her shoulder soothingly.

"You look beyond beautiful Rachel, Quinn's gonna love it, and she's gonna love you. Go get your girl"

Kurt said with a massive smile on his face. They were perfect, and Rachel looked stunning, there was no way that Quinn wouldn't be blown away. In a way, he wished he could be there to witness their amazing night, but he was glad they were getting some alone time after all the not alone time they had been getting so much of lately, he wouldn't want to intrude. He was pretty sure that Quinn would tell him everything afterwards like usual, and he'd lay on his bed whilst they talked for hours and hours about life, and love, and Rachel, and everything. His conversations with Quinn, were just better than any other. She understood him like no one else, well Rachel did too but she doesn't really do conversations like Quinn does, and they could talk about anything, it was wonderful and refreshing.

Rachel stood up, smiling that beaming mega-watt smile Kurt had seen earlier, and headed out of the door all ready for her date with Quinn, however as soon as she was out of the bedroom door she couldn't help herself but walk right back into the room again. She opened the door, and sat back down on Kurt's bed, looking at Kurt's confused expression when she nervously spoke.

"I've changed my mind."

She stated quite clearly, but there was a nervous wobble in her voice. It wasn't the same to pull off a look like this without it, and to be honest now thinking about it she would like to have the choice, therefore trusting her best friend would be the best option in this situation, Kurt clearly knew what was best, and now, maybe she had come to agree.

Kurt stood up once again, smiling widely and directing Rachel over to the vanity. He didn't even have to ask because he knew what she meant without her needing to speak.

Once Rachel sat down, nervousness began to once again rattle through every part of her body, she didn't know why she was doing this, yet she did. To impress Quinn. All of a sudden it was like she had all these feelings, that it seemed like she'd had for ages, but not like this.

Kurt noticed Rachel's nervous expression, and placed a hand on her shoulder stroking it gently. She had no need to worry, he'd done this before, and it was perfectly safe. Also, apparently it doesn't even hurt, that's what everyone says, but he can't necessarily vouch for it, not knowing from experience himself. Figuring that maybe it would help her relax a little, Kurt got out his iPod shuffle that was dedicated to songs from Wicked, and put both the earphones into Rachel's ears, turning on the music to the song 'The Wizard & I' but pausing it so they could continue talking before he began.

"Just sit back, and relax. I promise you, everything will be fine"

Kurt said soothingly, pressing play on the iPod shuffle so the music started to play into Rachel's ears. Kurt knew that Wicked was one of Rachel's all-time favourite Broadway musicals, and she would do anything to one day play Elphaba, therefore it was the perfect choice of music, and easily obtainable too since Wicked was also Kurt's all time favourite, and his iPod was only on his bed so it wasn't a stretch at all.

Rachel loved this song so much, and Wicked was indeed one of her all time favourite Broadway musicals, but she found it difficult to listen to it, and to relax in general in this situation, she highly appreciated Kurt's gesture though, it was wonderful. She tried once more closing her eyes, maybe she'd try to tone it out by listening to the music, and not looking at all, however that didn't seem to work either.

Rachel was so tense, and Kurt didn't know what to do to get her to relax, it was like the Rachel he had seen for a while earlier, and the other day at school had just disappeared and she was back to normal again, and the usual wasn't working, even her favourite Broadway musical wouldn't relax her. She kept telling him to go ahead, but he wasn't sure he wanted to with her seemingly so uncertain.

'Rachel, just take a deep breath and listen to Wicked' she said to herself in her head. If she didn't, she was going to be late and that would not start off the 4 month anniversary in a good way at all. She needed to snap herself out of it, 'You're Rachel Berry. You don't get nervous. And yes a date with Quinn Fabray, the most beautiful girl you have ever met but a lot more than that, is nerve-racking but you're Rachel Berry, and she's Quinn Fabray' Rachel said to herself in her head, quite the motivational speech, at least she'd have a chance at being a motivational speaker, Rachel chuckled to herself. She could do this. She closed her eyes and relaxed as fully as she possibly could, giving Kurt the go-ahead.

"1...2...3..."

And a few seconds later she felt a small sharp pain, that was sort of like when someone pinches you with their nails, not too painful but quite sharp for the short time frame it took place in.

"OUCH!"

She couldn't help letting out a scream, but not a very loud one, it just couldn't be held in. Despite that, definite accomplishment. But there was still one more leap before her date, which was the biggest leap of all.

Kurt noticed that Rachel's face had gone all red, and her eyes were kind of tearing up, which made him feel rather bad, as it was from his doing. But it wasn't because he'd done anything wrong, he didn't want to hurt her, but she asked and he knew it would, even just the tiniest bit. He wasn't sure if he should go on, but she beckoned him to despite.

A few seconds later, Rachel managed to hold in her scream this time, she didn't want to worry anyone, and keeping on screaming was bound to make some people question why it was happening. Now everything was perfect for Quinn, and their date would be absolutely perfect.

Rachel opened her eyes, taking out the earphones slowly and carefully, and looked at herself in the mirror. She loved it, so so so much, and she was really glad that she'd come back, and that she'd managed to snap herself out of the nervousness, because it was so worth it, despite the burning sensations she could feel, it was so worth it in the long run, and the short run. Now, date time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Next chapter! :D I realised just as I was uploading it that maybe it doesn't make entire sense, what do you guys think? I originally thought that it would be really good if I put this later on in the fanfic, but I don't know if it works xD This chapter is sort of a flashback, but not really because it's from Quinn's point of view about the morning of the crash, but I'm not sure how to describe it other than that xD I really hope you guys like it :) Also, for the people who are asking me why I put this fanfic in the Finchel section, that is because this is primarily a Finchel fanfic, or rather it's going to be, we just haven't got there yet xD **

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It was a reasonably normal morning for Quinn. Nothing unusual, nothing different from every other morning. She'd woken up when her alarm belted through her bedroom, or what seemed like that anyway. After dragging herself out of bed, it was cold and the bed was so warm, she'd picked out her clothes for the day, changed, applied her makeup, and headed downstairs for a filling breakfast of cinnamon flavoured Cheerios, before heading out of the door and starting to head to school. It wasn't until she spotted something she couldn't believe at first, making her feel sick to her stomach, and White as a ghost. She was in a bit of a hurry, as she had things to do before the school day started, therefore she was trying to get to school as fast as she could. However, it became obvious that no matter what, they would have to wait until some other time when she witnessed a car crash happen right in front of her eyes. She was terrified. Frozen to the spot. Only brought back from her petrified state by the loud noises of the cars behind her, using their horns a lot, trying to get her to move. Did they not see what just happened? She need to go see, there was still one car there, even though the other had drove off, so clearly they were fine, but the one that remained there, was well and truly smashed in at the front, and it wasn't moving. Just sat there.

Quinn got out of her car and headed over. She needed to call someone, definitely an ambulance, was there anyone else? She wasn't sure. She was still absolutely petrified. She was sure she'd probably have to call into school and say she was sick after this, no not probably, definitely. She couldn't think straight.

The ambulance came within what seemed like no time, but an eternity at the same time for Quinn. When she was waiting, it felt like forever. But once it came, it actually didn't feel like very long at all. The person in the car was conscious, but only just. She still didn't know who this person was though; she'd have to go closer in order to find out. She'd been avoiding that though. She needed to help them, but she was also squeamish, and felt like maybe she might pass out. The paramedics rushed to the area that was car, and immediately started trying to get the person out from where they were partially trapped. It was in that moment that Quinn realised who that person was. If Quinn didn't already feel bad enough, she felt 1 million times worse when she realised who it was in that car, the girl she'd had feelings for since she first saw her freshman year, the girl she had always made fun of for a way of hiding her true feelings, the girl who she was now 'kind of' friends with, the girl who meant more to her than anything. Quinn couldn't believe she didn't recognise her car, she hadn't seen it many times before, but she had quite a good memory, and usually remembered things like this. She was drifting in and out of consciousness, the paramedics were talking to her, but no such luck.

"Do you know this girl?"

One of the paramedics said to Quinn, who was now moving closer to the car, still dreadfully pale and beyond sick to her stomach. Quinn only nodded, as she carried on walking closer, until she got to where the girl was and started speaking in a rather shaky voice at first, getting stronger as she spoke.

"Rachel, can you hear me? Rachel stay with me okay? You're gonna be okay, you'll be just fine."

Quinn was in tears. This must be a nightmare, it must. Real life couldn't possibly be happening right now. She just needed to wake up and go to school.

_'Breathing is important'_Quinn thought to herself as she tried to breathe steadily to help herself not feel as sick as she was, and also to try and stay calm. They were now lifting Rachel up onto a stretcher and into the ambulance to take her to the hospital. She was doing great at listening to Quinn, or at least Quinn thought so, and nothing worse seemed to be happening, so that was great for until they got there. Quinn felt like she could breathe a little easier.

"Stay with me, they're gonna make you better. We'll be at the hospital very soon. I'll call your dads, you'll be fine okay?"

Quinn said taking hold of Rachel's hand and holding it gently. There wasn't much point to her saying the rest of that sentence however, because Rachel was already out. Worried didn't even begin to explain it, the paramedics said it was common for head injuries, and just to try and keep her awake as that was extremely important until they got to the hospital, but they didn't understand how hard it was for Quinn, because it was Rachel. Not any old person.

They arrived at the hospital within minutes, and rushed inside and through a set of double doors in through which, Quinn wasn't allowed to follow. She wanted to curl up in her bed and just stay there forever. Not moving, not interacting with anyone, not doing anything. Essentially hibernating, just like an animal. But she couldn't go home now; she had to stay for however long it would take. Rachel needed her.

She sat down in a chair in the corner of the waiting room, and sat, staring out of the window, and then at the floor, then watching all the people who came in. Lima General was only a small hospital, so there weren't many people, but there were a couple. There were magazines on the end tables for people to read whilst they waited, Quinn read every single one of the magazines three times if not more, but she wasn't really paying attention, just passing the time. Eventually she fell asleep after a couple of hours, and was woken by the friendly receptionist, who told her she's welcome to stay, but she'd probably feel way better if she went home and slept in her own bed for the night, coming back in the morning. What if something happened in the night and Quinn needed to be there? Precisely why she was going to sleep in the chair she had been sleeping in for the past few hours. Why did they think she would leave in the first place? She was exhausted, but there were more important things than that at the current time.


End file.
